knocking on doors with men

About a year ago I took a job working in door-to-door sales, one of the scariest fields to work in as a 21 year-old female. I worked here for six months and during my time at this job I worked primarily on a team of all men. For my first three months, there was one additional female on our team overseeing the majority of our operations and planning out our daily schedule. However, for the remaining three, I was the only female on our entire team. The combination of only working with men and the general safety concerns associated with door-to-door sales was incredibly unique and shaped the way I viewed the workplace.

I wanted to focus on working with all men for this blog post, but I feel it is important that I first note my experience working in the door-to-door field in general. Every single day that I worked, I encountered objectifying comments and uncomfortable conversations. My appearance was brought up by countless people, as well as the fact that I was a woman working alone. As someone with anxiety in the terrifying world we live in, my fears were amplified by working door-to-door. When I addressed these concerns to my team lead he would dismiss them, as if these potentially dangerous situations weren’t happening unless he was experiencing them himself. Upon reflection, I believe the majority of my frustration with my work situation was centered around the team lead ignoring the concerns I would voice to him.

“I figured they wouldn’t send a girl as cute as you out here without male protection.” -Customer

It is also important that I fill you in on the way we worked, going into neighborhoods as a team and then often splitting up individually within the area to knock on doors. We would use location sharing services and communicate in our group message whenever we stepped inside a home. As my time at the company progressed, we started working farther apart and heading into less safe neighborhoods. Towards the very end of my time there, we began working in entirely different sections of the triangle. For example, one of us would handle all of the Cary neighborhoods, one would be in Durham, one in Apex, and so on and so forth. This meant that we were 20-30 minutes away from each other at all times, making it impossible to get timely help from a teammate if it was needed. We also stopped sharing our location with each other while on the job. My best friend (and roommate at the time) would check in with me periodically and keep an eye on my location while I was at work to ensure that I was safe.

“I really want to shoot the next person I see from your company.” -Customer

This shift in our dynamic and safety precautions had a linear relation to our one female superior leaving her position. She was previously in charge of navigation and constantly emphasized the necessity of the safety aspect of the job. After she left, there was also a change in the energy of the group. We went from a team unified by a common goal of helping customers improve their current situation with our products to a team focused solely on numbers. This shift in focus created a change in morale and team member relations.

I was the only girl on the team and our team leads would not let me forget it. I constantly received comments about my actions on the door in a completely different context than my male peers did. This included saying I should be making more sales because I was “pretty” and “nice”, as well as saying that I wasn’t making enough sales because I was too “nice” to customers.

“Do you think you’re too nice on the door?” -Team Lead

They seemed to care about me being a girl in terms of getting a sale, but completely disregarded the disadvantage I would experience. They wanted me to be female to try to win people over on the door with my “sweet” disposition but wanted to disregard my gender when I brought up safety concerns. Customers would rarely trust me, a young female, to sell them anything, much less a tech product. I often had people ask to speak with my manager or be reluctant to sign up with me because they believed they would be able to do it better themselves. However, this was never considered to be a legitimate problem and my leads instead placed blame on me for not being good enough on the door.

“It’s easy for you. All you have to do is smile and you’ve made a sale.” -Team Lead

I can’t devalue the skills I learned while working here or say that I didn’t have fun times. The other door-to-door reps became great friends of mine and we shared more than a few laughs on the job. However, I also can’t lie to myself and try to ignore the fact that there were many days I felt completely exhausted, worthless and ignored. If you take anything from this, let it be to try to keep an open mind and understand that people may face different challenges based on aspects of themselves that they can’t control. Listen to people’s experiences and spread love.

xoxo,

lexy